Megan Dowsett is a creative consultant working with museums and galleries, and an illustrator who is finding her voice through personal and local projects.

Through the name Norris and the Flamingo, she shares the sense of adventure that runs through all of life, wherever we are on our journey. A sense of imagination, of possibility and discovery, for children and adults alike.

26 September 2017

Yesterday afternoon found myself and some fifty other
professionals from across the heritage world, discussing loneliness on every
level. It was the first meeting of MAP, a new network with a mission to push the boundaries of community engagement and interrogate the ways in which we work with our community. For me, it was a new way to
engage with my colleagues – to start out on a very broad but specific theme,
and to interrogate this theme on all its levels. The MAP team had put together an incredible
range of speakers, and ensured that they each took a different perspective on
the same theme.

So we explored the
notions of institutional loneliness – of a museum that is separated from its
immediate community, for example – as well as cultural loneliness – looking at
the invisible borders and barriers within a community. We considered the more traditional but
equally important ways that engagement teams consider loneliness – thinking of
individuals from the community who have become isolated through a broad range
of circumstances. And we were challenged to probe whether what we really do is chase the funding - which audience is 'in fashion' now, and how can we find a way toward lasting engagement? Finally, we were
asked to think about something more personal, let's call it professional
loneliness – the feeling of bearing the needs of your participants and the
burden of a community project alone.

Breakout groups explored each of these ideas –
I found myself discussing personal loneliness, among a group who turned out to
be almost entirely freelance. Space
here, I think, for us to develop co-coaching (as someone phrased it) or support
groups, as well as exploring team building within the organisations where we
work.

It was an inspiring session – enormous thanks to the team of
some nine organisers (too many to name, I apologise!).
I’m not a tweeter (yet!) but you can find MAP on twitter, from where I
have pinched the photographs, here: #museumsparticipation